openings

Hi all, 

I was wondering what people thought of the birds opening, and whether it is good or not.

1. f4 is playable but not particularly good. Black can respond with d5, c5, or Nf6 and according to my database has a positive score with all three. When your first move gives black three options to gain an advantage, that's not great.

(p. 13)

1 f4

Unlike the two previous openings, this one

is too aggressive. This is because by play-

OP5

ing this opening, White has, of his own 

accord, opened a line which endangers his

own king along the diagonal of black

squares f2, g3, h4. Black's best reply is to

wage a pawn with From's Gambit.

1...e4 2 fxe5. Instead of just accepting

this gambit, White should try a gambit of

his own by playing the King's Gambit, that

is 2 e4. 2...d6 3 exd6 Bxd6 4 Nf3 (not 4

Nc3 Qh4+ 5 g3 Qxg3+) 4...Nf6 5 e3

Ng4 Black has moved his king's knight

twice in the opening, that is from g8 to f6

(4) and then from f6 to g4 (5). Normally the

dual move would be frowned on, but here it

has been worthwhile for Black: by this

means, Black now threatens to undermine

(p. 14)

White's defence of g3 by the move ...

Nxh2. 6 Qe2 Nc6 7 Nc3 O-O 8 Ne4 Re8

9 Nxd6 Qxd6 10 Qd3 Qf6 11 Qc3 Nce5

12 Be2 Nxf3+ 13 Bxf3 Qh4+ 14 g3 Qh3

(see OP6).

Black's queen sortie, even though there is

only one other Black piece in support, that

is the knight, has trapped the White king in

the centre.

   In this game White was therefore in a 

pretty parlous position and ten moves later

Black won by a direct attack.

Short, Nigel. 1989. Nigel Short's Chess Skills. The Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited.

Statistically, From's Gambit 1... e5 is certainly not black's best reply, since white has a plus score after accepting the gambit. If you know your opponent is going to play From's Gambit, the Bird's Opening isn't such a bad choice after all.

And then become an expert on playing that gambit obviously. If you don't know it and your opponent does, you'd probably get destroyed.

Thank you for youe comments. What opening would you suggest playing as your go to.

The most popular opening moves for white are e4, d4, c4, and Nf3. All better choices than the Bird's Opening. If you're asking me, go with 1. e4.

It should be clear that the most common openings are the ones that players, including masters, consider the best. In descending order of popularity the four most popular of these are:

1. e4

1. d4

1. Nf3

1. c4

I wouldn't try anything less popular than these, and even the 3rd and 4th choices give Black too much leeway for many people's taste, including my own.

http://www.365chess.com/opening.php

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(p. 503)

      BIRD'S OPENING

   (1 P-KB4)

POPULARIZED by the English master Bird towards the end of the

nineteenth century, his attack is rarely tried by modern masters because

it affords White too slim a grip on the centre. In Germany and Holland

it is known as the Dutch Defence with White. Today it is played only by

outright "devotees" who want to follow a set

strategy, well known to them, in order to avoid

surprises. 1 P-KB4 is an attempt to control

K5 and other vital dark squares, but it is non-

developing, slightly weakens the King's field,

creates some piece disharmony and fails to give

Black enough problems. But it does lead to an

eccentric equality.

   Schlechter's line (col. 2) easily holds the

balance, but other replies are equally satisfactory.

Col. 1 is Capablanca's analysis. Col. 3 is the

modern treatment for Black, a sort of Queen's Indian Reversed.

   From's Gambit (cols. 4-5) is a violent attempt to wrest the initiative.

Although considered unsound, it generally discourages a lot of players

from playing the Bird--instead of a quiet build-up, they immediately

find themselves on the defensive! But White can generally hold the

gambit pawn. Lasker's 4 ... P-KN4 (col. 4) is considered the main 

line, although recent games revert to Schlecter's 4 ... N-KB3 with

varying degrees of success.

Evans, Larry, and Walter Korn. 1965. Modern Chess Openings, 10th Edition. New York: Pitman Publishing Corporation.

Thanks for the comments guys would you suggest the stonewall attack a good opening choice.

Agree with Sqod completely in the order of openings. e4 is good for any

level of rated  or unrated players I feel..as for f4 i have considered  it as

the worst opening opening..online chess no body ever won against me with

this, in std.chess live..win on one or 2 occassions because of my internet conn.problems and not due to any extra ordinary chess skills from my opponents..

1. As far as I know statistics do not play chess... I'm probably missing something.

2. Thanks for the warning, since I was countering 1.f4 with the From for the last 35 years. Following your advice, I am now ready to change to something "better"... 

The post I was responding to said "Black's best reply is to wage a pawn with From's Gambit." On the chesstempo.com database (2200+ vs 2200+), the top four reponses to 1. f4 are d5, Nf6, c5, and g6. They all show a plus score for black. e5 is the fifth most common and shows a plus score for white. So e5 is the best move, but there are four other responses that score significantly better in high level games? That makes no sense. The "statistics do not play chess" line is just lol.

If From's Gambit suits your style, and you know it well, and you've had success with it, then of course I'm not going to "warn" you not to play it. I'm not in the habit of advising much stronger players on how to play. But you can't look at the statistics and seriously claim it's objectively the best move either. It's a move you like and presumably you play the resulting positions well, which is fine, but not the topic of this thread.

The fool laughs even when there's nothing to laugh at.

Pittacus of Mytilene, 640-568 B.C.